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Position:Home>Books & Authors> In 'The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere', the albatross hanging round the MQuestion: In 'The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere', the albatross hanging round the Marinere's neck isn't literal, is it!? Well I always assumed that the albatross hanging round the mariner's neck was a metaphor the burden that weighed him down!. But then my teacher and some other people have said that it's the literal albatross' corpse that he hung around himself, which is a bit stupid!.
Am I right here!?Www@QuestionHome@Com Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: You are both right, the mariner takes the corpse of the albatross and hands it around his neck as penance and as a warning!. The albatross was considered a good omen to seafarers - and to kill one was the most egregious of sins!. So in this - the death of the bird is something that plagues him and it is literal too!. Look at the lines again, "Instead of the cross, the Albatross, About my neck was hung!." As many Christians wear a cross about their neck to symbolize the horrific death of their savor, and the weight of that knowledge on the collective consciousness, so does now the dead bird represent this heaviness in the heart of the mariner!. He is trying to atone - something akin to the Scarlet Letter, where the sinner must wear her/his sin literally on her/his chest!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Yes, the other sailors (not the mariner himself) literally hung the dead albatross around his neck as a symbol of his sin, replacing the cross that used to hang there!. You'll notice that later in the poem when his sense of connection with the natural world restores his ability to pray, "!.!.from my neck so free/ The Albatross fell off, and sank Like lead into the sea!." Of course it is a metaphor TOO - for what guilt feels like to any human being - but within the world of the poem the dead albatross is as literally real as the watersnakes, and the ship!. After all, this is a poem in which corpses walk around when animated by angelic spirits - wearing a dead albatross round your neck is pretty small beer compared to that!Www@QuestionHome@Com hello!. Your teacher was indicating THAT his love of the albatross was ALWAYS around his neck, and he COULD NOT let it go!. I think that's the meaning!. : > <own 'personal albatross' is a job I devoted myself too, and can not will not let it go>Www@QuestionHome@Com It's literal!. What a punishment, this dead thing hanging on your neck!. Ugh!. FWIW, I gave one of our kids a stuffed albatross once!. I went to the trouble of adding one of those lanyards, for easy hanging from her neck!. She loved it!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |